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Welcome to the Creaky Tavern
(Age of Conan concept art)
Welcome to the Creaky Tavern, a place for roleplayers from all over Craethiel Kingdom to come and gather to talk about their characters and any of their plots. If you are new to the Kingdom of Craethiel, then this is a good place to advertise your character. The Creaky Tavern is perfect to explain a plot that you wish to do inside of the roleplay, and want to invite other roleplayers to join. So, come by and talk to your friends over a drink. Just please remember that things discussed within the Creaky Tavern cannot be known by your characters inside of the roleplay.
Come and have fun at The Creaky Tavern.
Relevant links:
Craethiel Kingdom Roleplay
Extra Information
Character ID

Article Update (26th June 2019): There has been some more news that has come out in the last week or so that suggests that the law has been delayed (For a third time), and thus will no longer be implemented on July 15th 2019. Multiple sources have suggested that it's been delayed for 6 months, others say indefinitely and a few of them are saying it's been withdrawn. I will be leaving this article up however for prosperity, and in case it does come back. As usual, I will keep you all updated. - @Temaelrin on 26th June 2019 @ 22:00hrs
Hello everyone;
I've been trying to put this off for quite some time now, however I've recently had it made clear to me under no and uncertain terms that I cannot put it off. This is something I didn't want to talk about, and I had hoped that citizens subjects in the United Kingdom would have raised their voices and told the Government to go fuck themselves, but apparently that's not going to happen and now we (as an industry) have to deal with it.
I am of course talking about the UK's Porn Pass - A.K.A: Government Permission to Wank. If I am going to be forced to implement this - which is looking increasingly likely at this point, then I will be speak very fucking candidly about it at the end of the serious thing, I will deliver my thoughts – open, raw and uncensored.
On July 15th 2019; the United Kingdom’s age verification law for pornography sites, will go into effect. The aim is: The UK Government want its citizens subjects to prove that they are over 18 to access adult content, and apparently putting in your Date of Birth will no longer suffice anymore. To prove that you’re over 18, you’ll either need to enter your credit card, passport number, mobile phone number or by an age verification pass from one of your local newsagents/shops. This is part of the 2017 Digital Economy Act. This law surrounds adult content, I believe it also applies to gambling sites, and tobacco/alcohol, but I’m not sure on that. In the adult site category, it applies to media (Pictures, videos and so on), cartoon porn (Hentai), and text (Roleplays for example. Sex Stories, etc).
Sites that do not comply with law will face fines of up to £250,000 (At the time of writing this works out to be around $318,000 USD) and/or getting their website(s) blocked in that country.
I want to make this clear that I do not like this, and I find this is to be an obviously unacceptable overreach by the UK Government, and as I’ve said previously, I’ve been told that I cannot ignore it. I also want to make this clear: This isn’t a Brexit issue. This isn’t a left/right issue. It seems that all mainstream political parties are in favour of this because of the age-old pearl-clutching trope of “Won’t somebody think of the children?!” That and the UK seems more fixated on being first in the world to do something like this, and that somehow makes it good, which is a logical fallacy in-on-itself.
This announcement isn’t to talk about how we can resist it or block it. But what will happen and what I am looking into going forward. I will be speaking candidly after this to share my thoughts and concerns on the matter. But for now, I will share with you what my choices and options are. I will say that I have no intention on purging EcchiDreams of all smut-content and confine it to EcchiTexts, so I am not going to start deleting all images, public sex side stories, sex stories, etc. This isn’t an option.
I could refuse to comply, in which case I think EcchiDreams might just end up getting blocked in the UK, but let’s face it, if I do comply the UK Government will probably find a way of doing that within the decade or so, at current course. I could also be fined a quarter of a million GBP, that is not a small amount.
Realistically if I want to keep EcchiDreams accessible from the UK, I will need to comply and believe me – I don’t want to for reasons I will share at the end of this. There are a lot of concerns that I have; such as:
Privacy Concerns – Will the details of porn users be held on some kind of database? With cybercrime so bloody rife nowadays… Do we really want to support something like that?
Liberty Concerns – They came for X but it didn’t affect me, so I didn’t say anything. They came for Y but it didn’t affect me, so I didn’t say anything. They came for Z but it didn’t affect me, so I didn’t say anything. They came for me, and there was no one left to say anything, kind of thing. Let’s not delude ourselves that this is for protecting children – this is straight up nanny-state bullshit.
This is Government Overreach – There is a reason that this is being dubbed as the “Wank Permit”, “Permission to Wank”, and so on. This is the Government telling us what to do because apparently parents in this country aren’t responsible, or the current block system isn’t working.
It is draconian – I’d expect this in ‘The Peoples Republic’ of China or North Korea; not in a liberal democracy, and certainly not in the United Kingdom.
Boomerville – This is obviously created by boomers who have no idea how the internet works. What next? Will VPN’s become illegal? Or TOR? What about proxy buying cards? Will this really stop those that are dedicated enough from accessing porn? I think not.
And that’s just to name a few…
What I’m looking at is a company called AVSecure who have AgePass - https://avsecure.com/ which apparently secures age verification by using blockchain (Based on Ethereum Chain). They say:
The AgePass Platform uses a zero knowledge proof system in combination with our customized version of the Quorum Blockchain (an Ethereum-based chain with added privacy features) which is capable of processing thousands of attestations per second.
Our core concept delineates 'creating trusted statements about a known person' and 'the use of those statements'. Users go through a one-time initial validation process to produce their credentials which they can onward use in a way that will only be known to them.
The user’s credential then generates ‘one-time’ use tokens when they visit websites in the future. These tokens are passed to the website providers which enable them to demonstrate compliance with the Law whilst also ensuring that their consumers leave no additional traceable information.
I am considering using this as we won’t be holding your personal data in that regard, and UK Subjects can buy anonymous cards for £10 which from what I can tell will give you a one time use code or something that you can use for an anonymous account on any AgePass wall. They have other age verification means too, so it’s really up to you how you’d go about it. If you don’t care about your privacy, they can do credit/debit card verification, mobile, and various others.
I think this is best thing we can do given the circumstances… I don’t think this will trigger for anyone outside of the UK, so if you’re an American for example, you won’t get ID’ed on the landing page for EcchiDreams, and you won’t be affected. But if you’re from the UK you will see something similar to this:
When you come to EcchiDreams, if I can get it coded in time. If not then we might be forced to close our Digital Doors to people from the UK until such a time that it is coded and properly integrated. If this does happen you might want to seriously consider our other option:
Get a VPN
I personally use Private Internet Access as a VPN, and I’ve found it to be quite reliable and fast, I am not affiliated to PIA (Private Internet Access), nor am I receiving money from them, but I personally like the fact that PIA lets you tune the data encryption, authentication and handshake protocols of your connection, and does a damn good job of anonymising your browsing. I’ve been using it for a year and I’ve never had any problems with them.
This can also be used on smartphones (Apple and Android alike), although the only criticism I have of it, at least from my perspective and experience is that on mobiles it can be a little temperamental especially when switching between WiFi and Mobile Data, has a habit of disconnecting every now and then, and finally the battery is drains quicker. But that might not be a problem for you.
I’m not shilling for PIA; there are other solutions out there such as; NordVPN, ExpressVPN, CyberGhostVPN, IPVanish, SurfShark, Hotspot Shield, and so on, I’ve not used them so I can’t attest to them. So I ask that you please do your research and find one that suits your needs. EcchiDreams doesn’t block VPN’s, and we never will. This has other benefits, that you might want to consider this as a viable option. Please take a look at: https://thatoneprivacysite.net/ to find the VPN of your choice. I highly encourage everyone to do this.
You can also use TOR, but EcchiDreams does actually block TOR registrations (But you can easily use TOR after you register).
I just wanted to give you all a heads up, and UK Dreamers will receive an email in June letting them know about this as well.
----
Now… My personal thoughts on it? The gloves are coming off, and this is going to get quite political.
You’ve just got to love the sheer hypocrisy, ladies and gentlemen!
The politicians tell us what to do and say 'you must live a wholesome puritanical life, that's rude, you can't look at that, citizen’ like they have the power to run and control our personal lives, telling us what do, what to say, what to feel and what to think. Nanny-State doesn’t even cut it anymore… At the same time as them trying to act like our moral superiors, they are misusing their expenses, having affairs with their staffers and other high ups... Orgies and kinky sex parties that include some of the richest in any given industry who are doms and high-class escorts, who have a LOT of clients who are top police chiefs, politicians, judges, lawyers, officials and so on. It’s nothing short of Hypocrisy at its best. Welcome to Brave New World.
I highly doubt that the main reason for this has anything to do with protecting children online, and everything to do with Government control over its citizens. They have forgotten that they work for us, not the other way around. I say this because it seems to be part of a wider problem with the Government which seems to be trying to take control over the internet. You only need to take a look at the UK’s white paper on “Online Harms” released last month. http://archive.is/3MuDH
Or the Investigatory Powers Bill; in where ISPs are forced to keep a full list of ICR’s (Internet Connection Records) for a year and make them available to the Government if asked. These ICR’s in effect serve as a full list of every website people have visited. Articles appeared about it in 2015/2016 – and there was silence. Hardly anyone spoke up about it. The full list of agencies that can now ask for any UK citizens browsing history (As laid out in Section 4 of the bill) Is as follows:
Metropolitan Police Service
City of London Police
Police forces maintained under section 2 of the Police Act 1996
Police Service of Scotland
Police Service of Northern Ireland
British Transport Police
Ministry of Defence Police
Royal Navy Police
Royal Military Police
Royal Air Force Police
Security Service
Secret Intelligence Service
GCHQ
Ministry of Defence
Department of Health
Home Office
Ministry of Justice
National Crime Agency
HM Revenue & Customs
Department for Transport
Department for Work and Pensions
NHS trusts and foundation trusts in England that provide ambulance services
Common Services Agency for the Scottish Health Service
Competition and Markets Authority
Criminal Cases Review Commission
Department for Communities in Northern Ireland
Department for the Economy in Northern Ireland
Department of Justice in Northern Ireland
Financial Conduct Authority
Fire and rescue authorities under the Fire and Rescue Services Act 2004
Food Standards Agency
Food Standards Scotland
Gambling Commission
Gangmasters and Labour Abuse Authority
Health and Safety Executive
Independent Police Complaints Commissioner
Information Commissioner
NHS Business Services Authority
Northern Ireland Ambulance Service Health and Social Care Trust
Northern Ireland Fire and Rescue Service Board
Northern Ireland Health and Social Care Regional Business Services Organisation
Office of Communications
Office of the Police Ombudsman for Northern Ireland
Police Investigations and Review Commissioner
Scottish Ambulance Service Board
Scottish Criminal Cases Review Commission
Serious Fraud Office
Welsh Ambulance Services National Health Service Trust
Or even the UK Digital Economy Bill of 2017. I am rather cynical. At the risk of sounding conspiratorial; I think Brexit is a convenient smoke screen for all of this, a nice little distraction, including all of the current PM’s blundering and fuck ups.
So a little history shall we? We’ve always had some kind of national webfilter and I didn’t have a problem with that because it targeted Child Pornography and stopped people from accidentally wandering in on a site back in a time where it was a very easy thing to do, and be exposed to it. I have no problem with that to a degree. It drove child pornography underground, and never wiped it out, but I don’t think that was the intention. I firmly and fervidly agree that we should eradicate child porn, and prevent its access. It is a noble goal. Even if it’s not totally achievable.
But things started changing after 2010 at the hands of the Conservative/Liberal Democrat Government.
At first David Cameron wanted ISP's to implement a child safety web filter at an ISP level that would be an opt-in thing, so that parents could use it could use it to block adult content for their children, and promote applications that could protect devices. This is good because it affirmed that it was the parents responsibility to protect their children, it was more of an order to ISP’s to make tools available for parents to protect their children. I have no problem with that. However it very quickly morphed into “Oh no; this will be an ‘Opt-Out’ thing. So people had to make an ‘Unavoidable decision’ to protect children.” Well I wasn’t happy about this… But I told my ISP that I wasn’t interested and they respected my wishes. Clearly - this hasn't worked either because apparently lots of people have either opted out or bypassed it.
Now they're introducing this Age Verification thing.
The UK has had a firewall of Great Britain installed almost a decade ago now. There was an uproar, but we were told that it will only be used to block sites like Pirate Bay, torrent sites. Originally we were told that this would be an open and transparent thing (As far as I can recall) that would have to be done by a court order… By the following year (2013) hundreds of sites were on it, including non-torrent sites - like TV Streaming sites, MP3 Download sites, etc. By two years after that it encompassed a metric fuck tonne of sites, oh and good luck getting a list of sites that has been blocked. That’s kept secret now as well. So we have no idea what’s censored or not. Some sites that are blocked have an ISP blocking screen that says that this site isn’t available because it’s been blocked by court order. Some sites however don’t show this and show an error message in the browser, but are magically there and online if you use a VPN.
Now they're threatening to start blocking sites that aren't in violation of copyright. I’m sorry but it is not the Government’s job to implement these draconian actions it’s the damn parents of these children be the ones who are responsible for their children.
And we're already seeing what else they're doing in terms of the online space. People getting arrested for jokes, sex stories that they've written, lyrics that they've posted online, expressing opinions on Twitter will apparently get you a visit from the local police (Such as there are only two genders) and so on. I’m not going to lie. I am quite worried about this increasing encroachment on our rights online. There seems to be an increasing curtailment of our rights online, and I honestly think it’s only going to get worse. As they justify the reasons to censor sites, it seems to be getting increasing easier for them to keep doing it which is exactly what I said would happen in 2009 on the Coroners and Justice Act 2009. I don’t think this is going to get better and with the Online Harm’s white paper, I think it’s going to get much worse.
I won’t even go into how AgeID is owned by MindGeek which also owns several of the largest porn sites and porn companies so yeah… We’re not using them. No conflict of interest there…
EcchiDreams has always upheld one of its oldest rules: Section 8 Paragraph 1, we have a zero tolerance towards members who are underaged, and upon discovery they get banned extremely quickly. We don’t want people who are under 18 on this site. We’ve always been responsible about this, and it honestly seems like we’re being punished for doing so, because “It’s not good enough.” I suspect that it will never be good enough for the industry at all.
I think we need a digital bill of rights. Urgently.
Who knows I could be overreacting, but as someone who’s been using the internet since the 90s, I don’t like the direction it’s gone in, and I don’t like the Government’s increasingly draconian laws to attempt to regulate something that they clearly have no idea of how it works.

Welcome to Palm Beach
(Artist Unknown)
Palm Beach is a beautiful beach along the shore of the Utopian Curse island. It is a perfect place for roleplayers to come and discuss their characters and plots. If you are new to the island of Utopian Curse, then this is the best place to come and introduce your characters, and request for plots or roleplaying partners. Please note that things discussed in this thread may not be known to a character, so you cannot have one of your characters somehow knowing something that was discussed in this thread, unless they were exposed to it within the roleplay.
Please enjoy your stay on the beautiful Palm Beach.
Relevant links:
Utopian Curse Roleplay
Extra Information
Character ID

Welcome to the Blackberry Café
The Blackberry Café is a place for roleplayers to gather and talk about the Blackberry Falls roleplay. Here we can discuss our characters, and plots that we may want to make or currently have going. If you are new to roleplaying in Blackberry Falls, then this is the perfect place to come and meet your fellow roleplayers and get to know them. You're also welcome to advertise a character that you would wish to roleplay with, but currently have no roleplaying partner for. Just please remember that anything discussed here in the Café cannot be known by your characters inside of the roleplay however, if you with to interact with other roleplayers in a roleplaying formet (Such as RPing yourself in first person), feel free to. Come in, sit down, order a drink as you natter away. Also please note that double posting is allowed here.
Please enjoy your stay here in the Café
Relevant links:
Blackberry Falls Roleplay
Extra Information
Character ID

An interesting discussion idea that I had the other day:
Do you think that out of context screenshots or game CG count as spoilers?
Say for example that I provided a screenshot of one of the Gen I Pokémon games, to show an example of the warp panels or something. It may be of a single room in a certain building, but there's no context to it.
Or, I take a screenshot of the route on which I caught a certain Pokémon.
Taking it a little further, to the main point: background art in story modes, with no dialogue or anything like that, just the art... Do you personally consider that a spoiler? I mean, sure, you see the art before you get that far/unlock it, but it provides no real context.
And, for example, say there's one thing you can do to unlock all background art in a game (without any dialogue/context, other than being in the correct order)... Would you look at the art before playing through the story mode? Or would you ignore the Gallery until you 'unlocked' all the art legitimately?
Just curious about what people think. If this gets any interest, I'll share my opinion.

So we've had topics about our favourite games, as well as the games we have in our wishlist. But what about the games we do have, and yet haven't had the chance to play? I have a couple that I plan on playing, when I get the chance to.
@Manni was kind enough to give me NieR:Automata that I plan on playing as soon as I can. The Long Dark has also been officially released, and I'm waiting for the chance to play the main storyline of that.
So what about you guys?

Welcome to the Red Velvet Club
(Unknown Artist)
The Red Velvet club is an exclusive club on the Andromeda Space Station, a place where roleplayers can gather and discuss about our characters and any plots that we have. If you are new to the vast expanse of the Andromeda Galaxy, then this is the perfect place to come and introduce your characters to the other roleplayers to discuss possible plot lines. Please remember that plots and characters posted about in this thread may not be known to characters within the roleplay that had never encountered them before, so please do not have them somehow knowing what they couldn’t possibly.
Please enjoy your time at the Red Velvet Club, the best club in Andromeda
Relevant links:
Andromeda Station Roleplay
Extra Information
Character ID

So... yeah, Kingdom Hearts.
I love the series despite Square teasing us with constant mid-series titles that you kinda must play in order to get the full picture (like the recently announced 2.8 that will add more stuff to Aqua in the Realm of Darkness and other things), I played almost everything, except KH 3D since I don't have a 3DS.
It was one of the first series that really had me thinking about theories and stories inside of it, and I have books worth of theories about the series, from naming of characters, to event, to even symbols used, like an explation of how Sora could actually be the Keyblade's chosen one despite the fact that from Kingdom Hearts II is explained that anyone with a strong enough heart and that had the power passed by a keyblade wielder can use one; why Namine isn't exactly Kairi's Nobody and why she has power over Sora's memories etc.
From a gameplay perspective, the series really is pretty unique because of all the different things they experimented with throughout the series, instead of doing what most people would do and just use a tried and true generic Action RPG system. The artstyle is very characteristic (despite often suffering from Nomura's signature "too many useless belts and zippers"), and manages to mix both Disney and Final Fantasy (and just recently other Square IPs like The World Ends With You, finally) almost flawlessly. The character models themselves are always pretty good, even in the original PS2 game, though sometimes not using a full 3D model for the face and mouth animations and resorting to simply usin textures to save space and processing power.
And like every game from Square, good or bad, the soundtrack is 10/10, courtesy of Yoko Shimomura, that managed to create a both iconic and very Square-like soundtrack but keeping it fresh and new. Heck, I find myself listening to it when I'm doing other stuff, especially some of the more cozy ones like the Traverse Town or Twilight Town theme.
I even do a full playthrough of the first 2 games at the hardest difficulty setting each year just for funsies and because I love the series.
Though sometimes, as an italian, I wonder what a version with italian voice acting would sound like, since we only have the text translated, like every Square game.
What about you? What games have you played? Do you like the series?

Hi, everyone! I decided to use this section of the site for more than game reviews. The point of this thread will be to discuss the Pokémon games! Mostly to find battling/trading partners, though. Anyone with a 3DS and a copy of Pokémon X or Y is welcome to post requests for battling and trading. You will have to post your 3DS Friend Code and in-game name, however. Of course, anyone is welcome to join in conversations! Oh, and this is also gonna serve as a place to gather Friend Safaris. The Friend Safari is a place in X and Y that's only accessible after beating the Champion. Everyone has 3 Pokémon linked to their Friend Code. When you exchange Friend Codes, you'll be able to find the Pokémon in the Friend Safari. They tend to be rare Pokémon. I'll start off.
Name: Tyler.
Friend Code: 2320-6641-7872.
Safari: Normal Type(Teddiursa, ???, Chansey.).
If anyone has one of the following Pokémon to trade, I'd be very grateful.
Volt Absorb Pachirisu.
Skill Link Minccino/Cinccino.
Adaptability Eevee.
Drought Vulpix.
I have good Pokémon to trade.
Infiltrator Hoppip.
Finneon with Psybeam, Aurora Beam, and Signal Beam.
Pichu with Volt Tackle.
Orange Flower Flabébé.
White Flower Flabébé.
Alright; let the Pokémon-related fun begin! ^_^

Recent Announcement

18th May 2019: There are some changes coming that will affect everyone on this site from the United Kingdom. Due to recent legal changes to the UK's Digital Economy bill, we are forced to verify the ages of everyone from the UK. This is not something we want to do, but have to do. For more information click or tap here.

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